Jacob, our account manager, invited me out to dinner with Lionel, one of the reps. Not as many options on Monday, but this was a fantastic option. I haven’t been here since 2023 when Andrea and I last dined here and was definitely looking forward to it.
We had a 6pm reservation and it was pretty busy already. Jacob and I ordered cocktails. I ordered a Roku Gin Highball and Jacob had the Goya Kiri. Mine looked very plain, but and had a relatively simply flavor profile, but was refreshing. Jacob’s cocktail (not pictured) was made with Japanese rum, bitter melon chartreuse, pineapple, and togarashi and had a nice presentation (as I generally expect here in SF) with the green color coming from the bitter melon chartreuse.
They gave us a little amuse bouche that was their take on the millenial staple of avocado toast in this case made with a mini toasted butter brioche bread with avocado and salmon roe. It was tasty bite.
For starters, we ordered the wagyu tsukune and the buckwheat parker house rolls. The tsukune was a shaped like kofta and was made with a mix of Japanese and American wagyu. There was the tare dipping sauce with an egg yolk (and I love egg yolks) which they told us to break up and mix into the dipping sauce. A very nice starter, although we didn’t necessarily need more meat at a steakhouse, lol.
For our steaks, I ordered the 44 Farms ribeye, medium rare, Jacob had the 14 day dry-aged Bryan Flannery NY strip, rare, and Lionel had the King River filet mignon. We also ordered a side of koshihikari rice which was made with lobster mushroom and salsa macha xo (not pictured). When you’re at a steakhouse, of course it’s mostly about the steak and mine was fantastic, meaty with a rich unctuousness. I so rarely enjoy the steaks at restaurants and this is the primary exception to that…every steak here in my 3 visits has been fantastic.
For dessert, we were all eyeing the banana mille-feuille since apparently all three of us are banana fans (or should that be bananafan) although Lionel passed on dessert, so it was me and Jacob. This was mercifully a mini mille-feuille and was short a thousand layers with only a couple, but was fine with the banana pudding of course. On the side there was a vanilla semi-freddo topped with some cocoa nibs.
Lastly, we received some mini oreo cookie type mignardise to end the meal. All in all, great meal. Thanks Jacob and Lionel!
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